Rockaway Post Offices Spared The Ax

By Nicholas Briano

The post office at 90-14 Rockaway Beach Boulevard will remain open. Congressman Bob Turner announced this week that the Rockaway Beach post office will remain open under the new restructuring plan being finalized by the USPS that’s aimed at cutting costs by shuttering underused post offices and reducing many common postal services to avert bankruptcy.

In the summer, the USPS published a lengthy list of 3,700 potential post office closures that included the Arverne and Rockaway Beach post offices. It was announced by Councilmember James Sanders Jr. last month that the Arverne post office would remain open, followed by news this week that Rockaway Beach has been saved as well.

According to Turner, the USPS has decided not to close the Rockaway Beach post office based on the results of an area facility study.

“I am happy to announce that the Rockaway Beach post office will remain open to serve our community. My office has received numerous phone calls and letters from constituents informing me of the adverse impact this branch closing would have caused.” Turner said. “The USPS has made the right decision in this case.

I commend District Manager Frank Calabrese and the rest of USPS management for making a wise choice, one that will keep people in our community at work.”

Calabrese, who oversees postal operations in the Postal Service’s Triboro District, which includes Rockaway Beach, says the facility study was designed to give each post office facing closure a fair assessment of their value and worth to the community.

“As with every facility study that is conducted in our area, we give a full and fair viewing to the entire package,” Calabrese said. “In this case, our review showed that closing this Rockaway Beach site was not an appropriate postal decision at this time. We take our service to the community seriously and believe this is the right action, in the right location, for us now.”

The move comes as the cash-strapped USPS believes the use of regular mail services is on the decline and not producing enough revenue to keep them out of the red.

They are planning to shift gears towards village post offices instead of traditional full-scale post offices. Village post offices are run by local businesses such as pharmacies and grocery retailers who would offer stamps and flat rate packing options for shipping.

Village post offices already exist in many parts of the country and locally in Broad Channel, which is convenient and purposeful to residents who must pay a toll on the Cross Bay Bridge, in order to visit their local post office.